Facade
by AZ1087653
Summary: G1 - Things are not always what they appear to be, especially when you get con-mechs involved.


Disclaimer : I don't own the rights to the characters. Every mech mentioned has a toy they were designed after. I also have no rights to the show Jeopardy, or Alex.

There is no point to this story, it was just for fun. These characters are from the G1 series.

* * *

Facade

It was supposed to be a boring and calm shift. Very few actually liked monitor duty, but Skids liked to sit back and let his subordinates handle listening to the air waves; pick up what should and shouldn't be heard. That way he could sit on his chair and dream about what was going to happen when duty was over.

Skids was ecstatic to see the others on duty were going to be Rewind, Eject and for some reason Grotesque; who had changed shifts with Trailbreaker at the last minute. Skids didn't care, as long as Grotesque was left alone, then he could play his games over in a corner and not bother anyone.

As for Rewind and Eject; they would pass along trivia between each other and pretty much stay in their own little world. Thus, Skids would be able to allow those beautiful daydreams to envelop him.

He watched as Grotesque hopped into the room, waved, and bounded over to the corner, no doubt looking for the remote to the television system. Shortly thereafter, Rewind and Eject walked into the room and acknowledged their superior. Skids nodded approvingly while the two began their monitoring duty.

Oh what a beautiful day it was going to be!

"This is your fault."

The snarl caused everyone in the room to look at the doorway. Skids's optics widened when he saw Sunstreaker stalk into the room, a bucket at hand. Sideswipe slid into the room, carrying a couple of human sized chamois.

"No it wasn't." Sideswipe said; then looked at Skids, grinning. "Hiya Skids! I guess we're in here to clean the surfaces of the consoles."

Skids looked at his crew for the day. Rewind and Eject were watching with interest, but didn't really seem to care that Sideswipe had just walked into the room, thereby causing the calm day to go right out the window. Grotesque didn't even look up from the monitor.

"What are you doing here? You're not on my list." Skids asked, eyeing the pair warily.

Sunstreaker grabbed a chamois from Sideswipe and walked across the room; hatred burning holes into the consoles. Sideswipe watched his brother walk off and looked over at Skids, who was still confused by the sudden appearance of these interlopers.

"Kup kinda decided we needed to have less free time. Had something to do with replacing the wash racks' cleansing solution with Navel Jelly." Sideswipe replied, causing Sunstreaker to growl from over in the corner.

"What unlucky mech ended up on the losing end of that?" Skids asked, backing away from the known perpetrator. He could hear Grotesque giggle in the back ground.

Sideswipe took a moment to think, then looked back at Skids, still grinning. "Hot Spot was the first, then Grimlock ended up getting hit too. Probably would have gone on longer had the overgrown lizard not shot up the wash racks." Sideswipe chuckled maliciously and walked over to the bucket Sunstreaker had.

Skids shook his head and turned to see Rewind and Eject looking on with slightly amused expressions. Both caught Skids's optics and went back to monitoring the air waves.

With one more glance around, Skids went to a chair and sat down, propping his feet up and shuttering his optics. The only noises to be heard were the occasional whispering from either the twins or Eject and Rewind.

Things continued on for a great deal of time, without incident. Skids was surprised to see the consoles shining and no one having an argument when he opened his optics after a particularly vivid dream. He was about to close up again, when the sound of Grotesque shrieking, brought him to his feet; the chair crashing to the floor.

"Jeopardy! Jeopardy! Jeopardy!" The mech sang, jumping up and down in excitement.

Skids watched as Sunstreaker stalked over to Grotesque and grabbed the mech by a wing. "If you ever scream like that again for a stupid reason, I will personally mangle you beyond recognition."

"Relax Sunny, he didn't mean any harm." Sideswipe said, coming to the smaller mechs aid. When Sideswipe pried Sunstreaker's hand off the gray colored wing, Grotesque, took a step back, then went back to singing the Jeopardy theme song.

Sunstreaker stalked back to the console, but Sideswipe eyed Grotesque, watching the show, an interested look in his optics. Skids immediately went on alert; something the mech rarely did. Sideswipe with that look meant trouble.

Before Skids could even utter a word, Sideswipe spoke up. "Hey Rewind."

Skids watched the smaller mech look at Sideswipe. "Yes?"

"How about a friendly wager?"

This caused the fuel pump in Skids's chassis to skip a pump. This wasn't what he had signed up for.

Sideswipe bounded over to the two smaller mechs and got right into their confused, but curious faces.

"The next five questions asked, whoever comes up with the answer first and takes the most questions wins. Loser has to take the others monitor duty for a week."

"Uh, I don't…" Skids began, hoping to keep this from escalating into an incident. He was stopped by Sideswipe's hand suddenly being shoved over his mouth.

"Well?" Sideswipe pressed.

"I don't know Sides. I don't want anyone to get into trouble." There was doubt dripping off every word, but Skids could just hear Rewind's CPU telling him this was the easiest bet in the Universe. No one knew useless facts like Rewind, and between him and the red twin, there was no contest.

Rewind looked over at Eject, who had a slight smirk on his face. He had, obviously, come to the same conclusion Rewind had, Skids was sure of it.

Skids wrenched the offending hand off his face and glared at Sideswipe for a moment. Then he looked over at Sunstreaker, who seemed to be taking this all in stride. Grotesque had actually quit watching the television show and was enjoying the live one in the control center.

"We're not doing this. You can play games on your own time." This should have come out with more authority, but Skids knew this was a lost cause.

"Relax dreamer. This is just a friendly wager between two bots." Sideswipe said, putting an arm around Skids's shoulder and pulling the mech in for a squeeze.

"Okay Sideswipe. I'll take your wager." Rewind said, extending a hand to seal the deal. Sideswipe grabbed the offered appendage and shook it vigorously, causing Rewind to be knocked off his chair.

Sideswipe walked over to the large monitor and changed it from watching the Space Bridge, to the game show. Alex Trebek was introducing the next round of questioning.

Skids watched, with a mixture of fascination and disapproval, as his two subordinates watched the show, the other three gathering around to see who would come out victorious.

Grotesque was jumping back and forth with excitement, while Sunstreaker and Eject were calmly watching their respective brothers.

"Why can't I catch a break?" Skids asked no one, since no one was paying attention to him anyway. He walked back over to his chair, intent on sitting this little game out, but didn't get the chance when Grotesque started chanting.

"Sideswipe did it! Sideswipe did it!"

Skids looked over at the group. Both Eject and Rewind were staring at Sideswipe, who had a grin the size of the Nile, stretched on his face. Sunstreaker had a bemused look on his.

"Sideswipe answered the question first! Sideswipe answered the question first." Grotesque continued chanting.

Okay, so that was unexpected, but Rewind wasn't perfect and Sideswipe wasn't exactly stupid either. Twenty percent of the questions being answered by Sideswipe were probably a normal probability.

Skids sat on his chair in time to catch the last half of the question. Something to do with math.

"What is the Pythagorean Theorem, Alex." Skids heard Sideswipe say.

"Sideswipe did it again! Sideswipe did it again!" Came a jovial song from Grotesque.

Skids looked over at the group again. This time a look of confusion had plastered both the faces of Rewind and Eject, while Sunny was still looking rather bemused. Grotesque was dancing around the room like a kid at a birthday party.

Not wanting to believe it, Skids got up and walked back over to the group. "Did you really just answer the question correctly; before Rewind?"

Sideswipe looked over at Skids, with a grin that could scare the devil, plastered on his face. "You don't think that Rewind here is the only one with a good grip on trivia, do you?"

Skids shuddered at how sultry Sideswipe asked the question. Then he began to see if maybe he was daydreaming and this wasn't real. He watched the monitor screen and listened to the next question.

"What is the biggest lake in Japan?" Alex asked the contestants.

"What is Lake Biwa." Sideswipe shouted, just as Rewind started saying 'what is'.

The room suddenly became silent. Sideswipe had just won, by answering sixty percent of the questions right, before reaching the set number. There was no way for Rewind to catch up, let alone pass him.

Skids watched as Grotesque started transforming and careening through the room at high speeds. Sunstreaker actually smiled that dazzling smile only reserved for his brother. Rewind was dumbstruck and Eject was trying to hold in a chuckle.

Skids was brought back from silence by Grotesque miss-navigating a turn and plowing into him, causing both to fall into a pile on the floor.

"Sideswipe won! Sideswipe won!" Grotesque sang at the top of his vocalizer.

Skids had just enough time to hear Rewind answer the next question: who is America named after; Amerigo Vespucci.

Rewind looked ashen, if you could call it looking ashen. Skids watched as Rewind put his hands to his head and put his head between his legs.

"I'm having a cerebro-circuit overload right now." Rewind said in a soft voice as Skids put a hand on the small mech's shoulder.

Sideswipe cackled as he gathered up the cleaning supplies, a happy bounce in his step. Skids stood up, pushing Grotesque to the floor, and grabbed Sideswipe leading him out of the room.

"I told you we didn't have time for this." Skids snapped, completely out of character. Then again, he thought, anyone would be pissed to have their perfectly calm day ruined by someone with too much time on their hands.

"I'll tell Kup to pencil you in for next week. Thanks Rewind." Sideswipe laughed at the dejected looking mech. "Come on Sunshine. This is something we've gotta get circulating."

Skids stood by the door as Sunstreaker pushed his way through, grabbing Sideswipe by the arm and leading him out the door.

"You're just lucky that you had a rerun and Grotesque agreed to help with your little prank." Skids heard Sunstreaker say as the twins got further away from the door.

Of course! The only way Sideswipe would have been able to take on Rewind in a trivia challenge is if he had known the answers before hand. Skids walked back over to his chair and sat down. He watched Rewind come out of his funk and start to monitor again.

For a time he felt sorry for the small mech and debated going over to him and letting him in on the joke.

He turned up his audio reception as he watched Eject lean in toward his brother. As inappropriate as it was to eavesdrop, he wanted to make sure Rewind wasn't going to need to see the medic.

"Do you think Sideswipe was aware that episode was a rerun and we were aware of his little façade?" Eject asked.

"I doubt it. With him it's all about who he can con and what he can get out of it. I don't mind taking his monitor duty, and we'll get him back at his own game in all due time."

Skids turned down his audio, a smile plastering his face. Now the world was back to being right and he knew he hadn't been dreaming. Of course, now that reality was back to as it should have been, what was to stop him from continuing on with his day?

Skids put his feet up on the newly cleaned console and shuttered his optics again, waiting for the dreams to come back.


End file.
